Dakota Ridge's Evan Appel, this year's 5A state champion returns to Foot Locker MW in hopes of making a return trip to Foot Locker Finals on December 13.
On a day when most teenagers in Colorado will be overeating and slouching on the sofa as the Detroit Lions try to bring a sliver of redemption to yet another season of mediocrity, those cross country runners headed for Foot Locker MW will likely find themselves turning back the additional helpings of turkey, gravy, and pumpkin pie, and focusing on the task ahead.
The task ahead is simple: finish in the top 10 or end your season.
For several Colorado runners, finishing in the top 10 is a reasonable goal. For others, it will be a bona fide disappointment if they don't make it and advance to the national finals in San Diego on December 13.
On the boys' side, the Colorado contingent is well represented by Evan Appel and Joseph Manilafasha, returning Foot Locker finalists from 2007. But Appel and Manilafasha are from from alone in their hopes of making a trip to San Diego.
Others with good reason to believe they have a shot at cracking the top 10 include Danny Nicolls (Regis Jesuit), Joseph DeMoor (Buena Vista), Andrew Roberts (Lyons), Roblet Muhudin (Overland), Andrew Berberick (Mullen), and Walter Schafer (Cherry Creek). So much depends on how training has progressed over the last five weeks and how the legs feel on Saturday morning following the rigors of travel.
Every year, there are hopes sunk somewhere between home and race course. Every year, each entered runner hopes those torpedoed hopes will not be his own.
Among the girls, Colorado's biggest hopes attach to Colorado's smallest runner--Allie McLaughlin.
If ever there was a course suited to show a runner's strengths, the Kenosha course does that for Allie McLaughlin. McLaughlin excels on hill climbs and the Kenosha course abounds with hill climbs. If McLaughlin can successfully clear traffic at the start line, the prognosis appears very bright.
Other Colorado entries with strong hopes of making the list of finalists are probably relatively few. The best hopes appear to belong to Clare Gallagher (Cherry Creek) and Kara Slavoski (St. Mary's).
Although many of the girls' entries must extend their race distances beyond what they run at their own state meets, this is a relatively strong year for girls entries in the Midwest region.
Weather and course conditions typically represent an added challenge for Colorado runners. On the year that D'Evelyn's John McGuire finished fourth at Foot Locker nationals, he barely qualified out of the Midwest regional, taking the final qualifying position in a close skirmish at the finish. Mud that day was several inches deep on parts of the course. Slick conditions existed over every centimeter of the course that was not covered with grass. Half-inch spikes were the order of the day, and that represented a new and difficult challenge for Colorado runners. Wind and cold are the norm on this course devoid of the crushed rock trail surface that typifies so many Colorado courses.
Colorado Track XC wishes all Colorado entrants uneventful travel and the best of success on race day. We will post and archive results as they become available on Saturday. Users are welcome to submit race photos and may even do that directly now.